The outcome left both with identical records - 24-5 for the season and 15-3 in the SAC. The Lady Chaparrals had a 16-game home winning streak snapped.

"It's heartbreaking to know that we ended a (regular) season like we did - to know that we had a chance; it was right in our grip,'' LCU forward Jordan Hampton said. "I don't know if we were too anxious or too excited or looking forward past the game already, but we definitely didn't shoot like we have been.''

LCU trailed throughout the last five minutes, but had two chances to tie in the final 14.5 seconds. Jennifer Hughes barely grazed the bottom of the net on a 3-point attempt. After SNU's Lana Keith missed the front end of a one-and-one with 10.6 seconds to go, LCU's Kim Lloyd had an open look from left of the key, but her attempted 3 bounced off the rim.

The co-championship for Southern Nazarene was the 13th regular-season title for the Crimson Storm since 1988. Though its won several NAIA national championships during that period, Southern Nazarene was picked fifth this season after going 9-21 last year.

"I'm proud of the fact that the kids that returned who went through that are part of this, this year,'' SNU coach Lori Carter said. "I'm proud of what we've done this year, considering where we were a year ago.''

Based on a tiebreaker edge, LCU still will go to this week's conference tournament in Edmond, Okla., as the No. 1 seed.

LCU will play the No. 8 seed - Northwestern Oklahoma State (7-20) - on Thursday at a time to be determined.

Lady Chaps coach Steve Gomez will have some points of emphasis before then after he watched his team give up a season-high point total.

"We just played poor position defense,'' Gomez said. "We were reaching, giving up baskets because somebody would break down and we'd have to help. It was just a bad defensive performance.''

There was nothing much satisfactory, though. Even scoring 76 points, the Lady Chaps seemed out of sync. A top-10 team nationally in both free-throw and 3-point efficiency, LCU managed only 9-for-16 from the foul line and 7-of-25 on 3s.

Lloyd, a junior forward, from Coronado, scored a career-high 20 points, but the rest of the team couldn't get on board.

"I think we just panicked a little bit,'' Lloyd said. "I don't know how much their defense had to do with it. It was definitely us not moving the ball like we usually do, not screening and not moving around, not getting open.''

After being tied at 70 with a little more than five minutes to go, the Lady Chaparrals didn't score on 10 of their last 13 offensive trips.

Southern Nazarene made seven 3s in the second half, three from a player the Lady Chaps had no reason to defend.

Ashley Jackson, who was 3-of-20 on 3s for the season, made three 3s in the second half. Two came on back-to-back trips and gave her team leads of 64-63 and 67-65 with 8:21 left.

"It's one of those things as a coach where you're like, 'What is she doing? Oh, good shot,' '' Carter said.

Freshman guard Lana Keith was the other nemesis, scoring all 13 of her points in the second half. With SNU leading by two, Mara Kee kicked the ball to Keith in a corner, and she nailed a 3 for a 79-74 lead with 1:21 to go.

"She wants the ball,'' Carter said. "She was shooting it, I think, before she ever got it, she wanted the ball so bad. She just has that poise.''